very blessed

Aren't these little guys cute? I found them at a thrift store a couple of months back. They were covered in grease and really nasty. I scrubed them and spray painted them. They are trivets. I just love them. I actually thought I would sell them on ebay, but I enjoy them so much, I've decided to keep them!

Tonight I went with some ladies from our church (there were 8 of us) to a cold weather shelter in Santa Ana. It's an armory that is transformed into a shelter from 5 pm-7am during the winter. Single people and families are there. One Wednesday a month our church sends people to serve dinner. We also brought clothing and shoes and after dinner we piled it on tables and the people were able to look through it to find things they or they're family members might need. It was fun to see some of the things my kids donated get picked up and how happy the people were who got to take them. Dallin donated some Nike shoes he had outgrown and they were still in good condition. A boy about 11 or 12 picked them up and I thought he was getting them for himself. I watched him walk over to his family's spot on the floor and sit down with them and a few other things he had picked out. He had a warm hat (that Lauren donated) on his head. I didn't see exactly what happened next, but a few minutes later when I looked over that way, his mother had the shoes on. I'm not sure how it happened, but I like to think that he saw the shoes and got them for her. It was very humbling to see those people. There were the "typical" homeless looking people, a few "crazies", some that looked like they could live down the street from me. I saw a very clean, pretty Mexican woman with her daughter who looked to be about 2 years old. I saw a sweet looking family with 3 boys, about 4, 6 and 8. There were other families there, too. Most of the people were very friendly and thankful that we were there to serve them. I even got asked by an old toothless man if I were married. When I said I was, he said, "I knew it was too good to be true!". I guess he thought he had a chance with me since I was talking to him! He was telling me all about his rich uncle and said if I went with him, he could probably get his uncle to give him lots of money. Hmmmmm...tempting as it, was I turned him down. So anyway, it was good for me to go see the circumstances that these people are in. Earlier in the day, I had been thinking about how happy I'd be if only I had a new bedspread and pillows and artwork for my bedroom. Green instead of khaki and blue. Lame. Lame. Lame. Not that there is anything wrong with a new bedspread, but come on Stacey! These people get to wake up tomorrow, give back the gray blanket they borrowed and carry their belongings into the street in a duffle bag.
Be grateful for what you have! Because it's a lot more than what some people have. None of those people grew up thinking, "I want to be a homeless person when I grow up."